Montreal’s food truck vendors may now feed the masses — but only if bureaucrats deem them gourmet

MONTREAL – The food truck operated by Dispatch Coffee is about the last place you would expect to encounter a fire-breathing capitalist. Co-owner Chrissy Durcak would rather talk about the sustainable farms where her beans are grown, the artisanal roaster with whom she has partnered and the composting of the disposable dishes served to customers.

But after a jury mandated by city hall last June rejected Ms. Durcak’s application to sell coffee on Montreal’s streets, concluding her product was insufficiently gourmet, the principled 26-year-old is sounding more like an apostle of free enterprise.

“The market will regulate itself,” she said in an interview this week. “If there’s a good food truck, there will be lineups no matter where it is. People will find it. . . . The city shouldn’t be trying to mandate what is gourmet or not.”

For more than 60 years, it had been forbidden to sell so much as a pretzel on Montreal’s streets, so expectations were high when then-mayor Michael Applebaum announced this spring that he was lifting the ban for a pilot project. But instead of the anticipated culinary glasnost, aspiring food truck operators have hit a regulatory wall.

Bureaucrats are dictating where they can operate, when they must close, even what part of the truck they can serve from. City hall picked which trucks would be licensed based on their ability to “contribute to Montreal’s brand image as a gourmet city.” If you planned to serve hotdogs, they had better be hand-crafted and locally sourced. And your poutine should be topped with foie gras or wild mushrooms.

A 2012 study by Emergent Research, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, predicted a rapid growth in the number of food truck in the United States. It said food trucks could account for more than 3% of total restaurant sales — about $2.7-billion — by 2017.

These rolling restaurants offer a more affordable route to business ownership for entrepreneurs … unable to find financing for a brick-and-mortar establishment

“Tapping into a host of powerful consumer trends, from a desire for local products to an interest in unusual products, these rolling restaurants offer a more affordable route to business ownership for entrepreneurs experimenting with expansion or unable to find financing for a brick-and-mortar establishment,” the report said.

But in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada, entrenched business interests and interventionist municipal authorities are doing their best to rein in the growing industry. Toronto launched a pilot project Thursday that makes Montreal’s, with its nine downtown locations, seem ambitious. In Toronto, new trucks will be allowed in a few city parks.

“We’re now going to put food trucks in five obscure city parks on the fringes of the city, and we’re going to study that as a potential to move forward,” said Zane Caplansky, the owner of Caplansky’s Deli and a food truck he christened Thundering Thelma. “Who are we feeding in parks? Joggers are going to stop by for a smoked meat sandwich?”

Vancouver has a head start, having opened its streets in 2010 and now boasting 114 licensed food trucks. But the west-coast city takes the cake when it comes to regulations — or it would if cake weren’t so fattening. Food trucks are obliged to serve nutritionally balanced meals. “So if someone’s serving fish and chips, it comes with a salad,” deputy city manager Sadhu Johnston explained. Their cutlery and dishes must be compostable, and any significant menu change requires city hall approval.

We have a gourmet model. We don’t want traditional pretzels, with onion rings, hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken wings. We want something more refined

In Montreal, a seven-member jury chose the trucks that would take part in the pilot project. The members included a nutritionist, a chef, a wine critic, two bureaucrats and two representatives of local development agencies. Their marching orders were clear. “We have a gourmet model,” said Bernard Blanchet, a city councillor and chairman of the committee that recommended the project. “We don’t want traditional pretzels, with onion rings, hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken wings. We want something more refined. I think Montreal deserves that.”

It is hard to see how Dispatch Coffee’s product, which has drawn raves from Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart Whole Living, would not fit that bill. But Ms. Durcak and partner Rebecca Lessard faced another hurdle set by the city: extreme concern about upsetting existing merchants. High marks were given for “added value to the existing supply.” To the jury, there was no shortage of coffee shops downtown, so why authorize a mobile one?

“By excluding me from this project they’re in support of the Tim Hortons and Starbucks and these mega-chain cafes that are saturating our downtown core,” Ms. Durcak said.

Food truck operators everywhere face opposition from established restaurants that view the mobile canteens as a threat. Steve King, a partner with Emergent Research, said the arrival of food trucks has followed a familiar pattern. Established businesses initially ignore the upstarts, thinking their business plan will never work. Then they try to block them when the trucks enjoy some success.

“They have a lot of political power,” Mr. King said of existing restaurants. “City hall is going to listen to them.”

André Poulin perfectly articulates the status-quo. He is executive director of Destination Centre-Ville, which represents 8,000 businesses in downtown Montreal (and which has been invited to sit on a city committee proposing new municipal legislation covering street food.)

Who needs food trucks, he asked in an interview, when Montreal’s “unique” underground city is bursting with food courts?

“We really don’t need to have the same thing on the surface. We have it all in the basement of downtown Montreal,” he said. “It is those restaurants we should be making known, because they are small entrepreneurs who work hard, and they should not face unfair competition.”

If you’re providing great food and great service and great value, you don’t have to worry about a food truck pulling up in front of your restaurant

He said the trucks have not had much of an impact on existing restaurants this summer, but he worries what will happen if the city is forced to loosen its tight grip. “As soon as there is a lawsuit because someone is refused [a food-truck permit], they will win in court and the bylaw will fall,” he said. “Yes, this year it’s not so bad, but what will it be like in five years? It will be a free-for-all.”

Mr. Caplansky wonders what’s wrong with a free-for-all. He said he would not mind if a rival food truck set up outside his College Street deli in Toronto.

“Competition is the foundation of our economy. If you’re providing great food and great service and great value, you don’t have to worry about a food truck pulling up in front of your restaurant because your customers will come and seek you out,” he said.

“My experience is that competition is good. It’s good for consumers and it’s good for business. Competition keeps us on our toes. It keeps us fresh, it keeps us invigorated.”

In Vancouver, restaurants have let city hall know that they consider the downtown to be saturated with food trucks. So this year, the new additions were outside the core, even if consumers would have liked to see more trucks downtown.

“In terms of saturation, in the level of interest from the public, I don’t think we’re getting there,” Mr. Johnston said. “But we do need to recognize and balance the needs of various stakeholders, and existing restaurants are very important stakeholders.”
Wherever they appear, the food trucks are a hit with consumers. Every lunch hour in Montreal, the trucks draw long lines — none longer than the one at the truck operated by the celebrated restaurant Au Pied de Cochon.

Gaëlle Cerf, co-owner of one of Montreal’s pioneering food trucks, the taco-dispensing Grumman 78, said she has been pleased with the flexibility shown by the city in accommodating the trucks this summer.

I hope that the bureaucracy doesn’t stifle the whole thing, but I do definitely see that. I’m already kind of jaded about it myself, unfortunately

She is also co-founder of an association representing food-truck operators and she supports the city’s insistence on distinctive dishes. “It’s so easy to get crap in the city — the $2 pizza slice and the $1.25 hot dog,” she said. “The idea is to get something different and new and fresh.” Considering that street food had been banned in Montreal since 1947, it is unrealistic to expect Montreal officials to embrace the kind of free market approach seen south of the border, she said. “Right now they’re taking baby steps and I think that’s OK.”

Ms. Durcak has been told to re-apply next year and in the meantime she has found some off-street locations that will welcome her coffee truck. She has a deal with Concordia University to set up there this month and in September she will be at the Pop Montreal festival. But her enthusiasm for the food-truck experience has been dampened.

“I hope that the bureaucracy doesn’t stifle the whole thing, but I do definitely see that,” she said. “I’m already kind of jaded about it myself, unfortunately.”

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